Finding Balance

Every year, every month….who am I kidding. Every day this happens. My desire to DO IT ALL. Every fun run, every holiday party, every plan for a goal. All of it. I want to do all of it. But I know I can’t, nor should I. Indeed, I know the outcome. It’s not pretty. You see, all my life, I’ve struggled with the same principle of diving in, taking too much on, doing it all.

Because I want to do it all.

And not in just one area, it is everywhere. Especially with my own fitness, as my capacity grows, I want to keep pushing my limits. How much more? How much faster? How much farther? An then you add extra work for specific goals and it turns into trying to do every plan for every goal at once. And that just doesn’t work well. Overtraining happens. Fatigue. And possibly injury. Burnout.

Today I wrote myself out a list of goals for the next couple of months. CrossFit gymnastics skills, weightlifting, and distance running are all sitting there in black and white. Urge to do it all is there, especially seeing those words on paper. But then I stop and remember…..I am a mother, a wife, a daughter of the King….and I use my fitness to live my life, make it better! My life is not defined by this list, but made better by the list! It is December, leading up to Christmas. There are so many distractions, and that’s ok. It’s about finding the right amount of work, finding that balance. Creating a schedule, making and keeping appointments with yourself. Determining that point at which you are putting in consistent, meaningful work but not consumed by it.

So here comes the question. Where is that point? There’s no blanket answer. It’s different for everyone. it comes from trial and error, paying attention to what you can mentally and physically handle. A few posts back I was discussing setting goals and why right now is the perfect time to start working toward those goals. That hasn’t changed, but this is where the element of creating reasonable goals is important. Prioritizing those goals even more so. Pick out what you want to accomplish that will fit into the time you have. Know that yes, you may not keep to a plan perfectly, but also remember this is not the time to throw all caution to the wind. Don’t use that same mentality to turn an off plan meal or missing a workout day into a multi meal feast or a long workout hiatus. Keeping effort consistent and knowing you can maintain a plan will set you up for the coming mother-of-all-goal-setting days, January 1st. You can look back proud that you started going after what you want now instead of putting it off.

So here’s your homework. Take out that list of goals and your calendar. Budget some time to get to work, budget some time to go live that life! -m